Everything in the universe originates from natural processes of self-organization. Interestingly, “Artificial” artifacts are attributed to human creation, while “Natural” artifacts are attributed to natural evolution. The reality is that everything in the world is a result of matter configuring itself, including of course the technology that humans manufacture. There is no line between the natural and artificial worlds. The failure to attribute modern technology to a natural process is perhaps a result of the limited scope of the theory of evolution. Since the theory of evolution in its current form describes evolution as mutations on the genotype and selection on the phenotype, the focus on the lower and higher levels of organization can be neglected. For example, the theory of evolution does not answer the following questions, such as, how do molecules that form a cell ultimately give rise to the collective cell, how many trillions of cells that make up our bodies organize themselves, how the individuals that make up a species ultimately configure themselves into a society with individual specialization and division of labor, how the millions to billions of neurons that make up a biological nervous system organize to control a body within an environment and how human economies emerge. Although biological organization occurs at multiple levels, the theory of evolution describes only two disconnected levels and one mechanism: a molecule that encodes a genotype, a body that encodes the phenotype, and the selection of configurations through reproduction and death.
Physics can arguably be described as a mathematical accounting of energy. Objects in the physical world organize themselves to reduce their potential energies. A rock rolls down the hill because it reduces its gravitation potential energy. A chemical reaction proceeds because its chemical potential energy is reduced. Electronic circuits proceed because electrons are moving from regions of high electrical potential to lower potentials. It is of course logical that the mechanisms that describe thermodynamic evolution are simply an accounting of energy within the as-of-yet unaccounted area of living systems. That is, a necessary and complete account of thermodynamic evolution can be attained from one more description of matter's continual quest to reduce energetic potentials.
Thermodynamic Evolution (TE) concerns the self-organization of units into larger collectives. It is thus a requirement that a collection of units is provided which, through their interaction, may dissipate one or more energy potentials. These units comprise collections of atoms and molecules with three defining characteristics. First, atoms and/or molecules that form the thermodynamic unit must be capable of exchanging matter or energy with other units. Second, the manner in which the units exchange matter must be configured through a smaller subset of atoms or molecules (configuration bits) who's physical state is volatile. Third, the stability or mutation rate of the configuration bits is gated by the energy dissipation rate of the thermodynamic unit such that the configuration bits are more stable as the thermodynamic unit dissipates more energy. Therefore, there exists a need for a number of thermodynamically-evolving systems constructed according to the above requirements and characteristics.